


A Gift Of Dreams

by KrinnDNZ



Series: NaPoWriMo 2014 [6]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: F/F, Other, Quadrant Vacillation, Theros, dreamweaving, gorgons, petrification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 05:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,322
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2640440
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrinnDNZ/pseuds/KrinnDNZ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The planeswalker Ashiok Nightmare-Weaver seeks out a gorgon who's merely visiting Theros, as opposed to one of the natives, to bestow on her a gift. Naturally, a gift from a planeswalker is not a simple thing—especially not from a planeswalker like Ashiok. The gorgon herself, though, is just as much a stubborn mystery as Ashiok, and both are artists, so they understand one another. </p><p>The gift, however—she understands neither of them, and has made her peace with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Gift Of Dreams

She resides in a cave far to the east of Akros and the rest of the humans' cities, isolated and dry, quietly seeking other gorgons, both for their similarities to her and their difference. The gorgon is far from the heroes and gods of Theros, and only a few monsters encounter her. There are brutish minotaurs, the luckier and more cunning of whom flee at the sound of her hair's hissing, the majority of which are frozen in stone. There are basilisks, feral and reluctantly respectful, never staying long despite—or perhaps because—the gorgon treats them like very large housecats. There are other gorgons, the most difficult of all: quiet negotiation and wariness and danger. And then there is Ashiok the nightmare-weaver.

Ashiok's bare feet made the motions of walking, but were inches above the floor along with the trailing edge of the robes that draped from Ashiok's body, gauzy and smoky like the "face" of their wearer. Ashiok looked back and forth, an expression of mild, polite curiosity showing on a mouth above which rested no eyes, head, or hair, but simply a slow stream of black smoke curling in defiance of breezes, wafting between a pair of rough, curving horns that rose from just above the planeswalker's ears. Ashiok's progression into the cave was silent but for the gentlest rustle of cloth on cloth.

Past the light of the entrance, the harsh sun on the Akroan mountains was left behind and gave way to cool, stern, smoothed-down stone. The darkness bothered Ashiok not at all by its depth or the length of time required to walk through it down tunnels that grew rougher deeper in the guts of the mountains and to arrive at a tunnel lined with a gorgon's keepsakes, humanoid statues of various descriptions, frozen in various postures, all holding or supporting tiny lights that gradually grew brighter towards the lair.

The path to the lair had been carefully worked to mimic the natural part of the caverns. Ashiok took a moment to examine it the places where the stone changed from eroded to sculpted, one hand raised thoughtfully, tapping overlong, claw-like fingernails against the grey flesh of their jaw. The arrival of the gorgon, huge, looming, and softly hissing, did not cause the nightmare-weaver to stop looking, but they did make a tiny nod.

"Ashiok," the gorgon said warmly, whiskers flicking, hair raised curiously and hissing as half her snakes peered at Ashiok with flitting tongues tasting the air. "Such a pleasure to see you stopping past my residence."

"As though by chance," Ashiok said flatly, turning to face the gorgon. "You've never been easy to find."

The gorgon made a wry smile: she leaned back for a moment, resting her upper body on a bend in her lower body. Looming over the humanoid planeswalker, the gorgon had a mass and presence beyond that of her cousins native to Theros: larger than them, though smaller than the distantly ophidian hydras that roamed the forests and wilds of Theros. The gorgons of Theros, too, were snake and human: the gorgon now turning, slithering back into her lair, waving invitingly to Ashiok, had the face of a tiger and four sturdy arms rather than two, a peculiar monster among a lineage of peculiar monsters, her scales and fur all in earth tones, her movements fluid and yet alien.

"I'm somewhat elusive, yes," the gorgon acknowledge with a wave, "but artists such as yourself are certainly pleasant visitors." She slithered into a wider, well-lit space, a big comfortable study-reading-room-studio made little by her bulk. "Some refreshments? I was just steeping tea."

Ashiok made a polite little wave and a small head-shake of refusal. The curls of smoke rising from Ashiok's head and arms dissipated when they ranged far from the planeswalker's body, replaced by more dark seeping vapor, stubbornly resistant to the lights around the perimeter of the room. The gorgon moved to a little flat-topped oven and poured herself tea, then met Ashiok at the center of the room, wrapping herself around a piece of aged wood worn smooth by much rubbing of scales. Ashiok sat primly on nothing in particular, leaning back against air, hands folded in lap, one knee on top of the other.

"I brought for you a gift, an estranged acquaintance, and a small challenge," Ashiok said. "Traveling was made considerably easier by all three of these things being embodied in the same entity. Shall I?"

The gorgon smiled richly and clasped her lower hands together as her top-right hand raised her cup in a little salute to Ashiok.

"Such a considerate sojourner," she purred. "Please demonstrate your fascinating proposition."

Ashiok stood, unfolding, and raised hands, palms up, claws spread. Smoke poured off of Ashiok, swirled, and began to follow the planeswalker's hand gestures. Thicker and thicker, it formed into a loose column, grey with black and pal streaks, a faint keening sound in the background, a hint of fear-scent in the air. The gorgon watched, flat-green eyes lightly glowing, as she sipped tea. Her whiskers twitched briefly as she curled up her tongue to taste the air.

The column of smoke stayed in a column for a minute with Ashiok making little finger-gestures at it, then developed a disturbance. Smoke rippled and parted as though it were perturbed water, then developed a tentacle that swiftly split and defined itself as a hand and arm, groping blindly, waving slowly from side to side. After a curious look at Ashiok, the gorgon put her tea down and carefully extended her top-right hand, letting the smoky arm and hand find it, clasp it.

The smoke was firm to the touch, substantial, with weight rather than wisp. She took hold of its wrist firmly and pulled: a smoky body began to emerge from the pillar, extracted, waving slowly as a leg and a second arm came into view. With only a little more pulling, the smoke split along the arm that the gorgon grasped, revealing pale, dense scales on a skinny arm. The smoke peeled back further and further, up to the shoulder, then up to the head as it emerged from the column. A moment later, a slim, almost frail-looking dragoness was on the ground on knees and elbows, catching her breath, head dipped as the column of smoke dissipated into little dark particles and then into nothing. Her scales were white with blue accents, she had a pair of backward-curving little horns on her forehead, her wings had powder-blue membranes, and her tail flexed with her panting.

The gorgon's coils shifted as she lowered herself to the floor, supporting her upper body with two planted hands, her other hands caressing the dragon's head, then coaxing her chin up. They stared at one another, and a slow grin broke over the gorgon's face, a bashful, hopeful one over the dragon's.

"A long-absent acquaintance, yes: greetings, toy."

"Hello, Mistress. I was lonely without you."

"I happened to be in a favorable position," Ashiok said modestly. "Their dreams had a coherence unusual for mortals."

The gorgon pushed herself up and twisted lithely, an arc of serpentine flesh rising, flexing, and whipping out. The dragoness yelped as she was pulled into the gorgon's coils, then groaned as one layer after another of heavy cool flesh wrapped around her, coils thickly muscled with small textured scales, adjustments massaging the dragoness as she went from held to captured to paralyzed, enveloped from ankles to shoulders. By the time the gorgon finished, her dragon was panting again, blushing faintly periwinkle.

"I must sincerely express my thanks," she purred to Ashiok. "This associate of mine was once severely scarce. Restoring this dragoness to my grasp is a sweet-tasting bonus."

"I worked hard on finding you again!" the dragon chirped, still grinning.

"Yes, and a strenuous quest ensued, hmm?"

"It was very difficult but the la— ah— miss— uh— um— _your friend_ told me I could come along and then I'd be able to see you again and say that this time I'm ready."

She turned to Ashiok.

"So, you say dreams of readiness swept across their sleeping self?"

Ashiok nodded with a small, dangerous smile.

"They had a very strong recurring dream, and what it showed about you inspired me."

The gorgon turned and raised her eyebrows expectantly at the dragoness, who fidgeted against heavy coils.

"You used to inspire multifarious concepts," she noted. "Precious dragoness."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Still so modest. Dismissed from reminiscence, the ferocity you used in speaking your desires?"

The dragoness paused, looked down and away, and took a deep breath. The gorgon nodded and adjusted her body: there was an arcing C of her flesh with her upper body at one point and the wrapped-up dragon at the other. Ashiok stood at an equal distance from both. Stony scales flexed around the dragoness' legs. The dragoness shivered, blushing sky-blue in her earfrills, then looked up again.

"I want to belong to you. Forever."

The gorgon leaned over, turning her head in the dragoness' direction, lazily putting out her down-left hand and with one finger caressing the dragoness' chin. The dragoness nodded once, then nosed at the finger.

"Delicious." The gorgon extended her top-right hand towards Ashiok, palm up. "I suppose you wish to observe the consummation?"

"I wish to participate, to co-create. You are a creature of stone, I bend towards the aetheric. Collaborating could be—" There was a brief pause, a slight change of intonation. "—a means of investigation previously obscured from your vision."

The gorgon clapped delightedly.

"This proposal entices me! Starting instantly seems best, yes?"

Ashiok nodded, then brandished one hand slowly at the dragon: smoke rose from a grey palm, curling, tumbling through the air in a faintly ophidian way, reaching out to caress the dragoness' cheek. The dragoness shuddered a little, mouth falling open, cobalt-blue tongue hanging out, head tipping back and away from the tendril of smoke as she looked up at the gorgon. The gorgon smiled down at her, reached out, caressed her cheek with thick fingertips.

"Copious fantasies of this resided in my dragoness, yes?"

The icy-coloured dragoness only nodded, kissing the gorgon's palm, leaning into a caress from another of her hands and softly licking her fingers.

"Precious."

As the gorgon uncoiled from around her pet, she watched Ashiok curiously. Ashiok had begun to sway a little in the air, encircling wreaths of smoke steadily accumulating. With rising hands, Ashiok waved, hands out in front, moving back and forth, while Ashiok's face showed a pursed-lips expression of concentration. The dragoness, freed from coils, swayed, but stayed upright, a dreamy expression on her face. Moving in, the gorgon took hold of her wrists, carefully posing her: the dragoness crooned happily. Tiny puffs of smoke began to emerge from the tips of her horns and the points of her ear-frills.

The gorgon made quiet, fussy little hiss-mews as she adjusted the dragoness' arms: soon her hands were crossed in front of her belly with their palms turned up as though offering a gift. Her head was bowed, her shoulders at ease, and her legs pressed together with her tail coiled around them, passing in front of her knees and around again, its tip resting on her clawed feet. She straightened and slouched in response to the gorgon's touches, eyes slowly falling closed. Soon Ashiok was looming behind her, hands out and palms down, letting a curtain of faint smoke fall around the dragoness.

With the dragoness posed, the gorgon lowered herself, her snake-body lying in a single wide circle around the trio. When she planted her lower hands on the worn-smooth floor, her head was still above the dragoness', and she lowered herself, chin rising so she could stare firmly up at the dragoness. From her viewpoint, Ashiok's gestures framed the dragoness' head.

"Small gemstone, is your readiness sufficient?" she asked, her top-left hand resting on the dragoness' crossed hands and nearly engulfing them, her top-right hand gently rubbing the dragoness' chin.

The dragoness made a tiny nod and a less-tiny sigh.

"Your 'gemstone' is already dreaming of it," Ashiok noted calmly.

The gorgon's eyes began to glow: a dim apple-green at first, brightening quickly through the color of new leaves and into a vibrant chartreuse. They cast a green light on the dragoness' modest chest, leaving a milky turquoise cast, varying with her dense little scales. There was quiet shivering: she could see little twitches as the dragoness strove to keep her pose. Ashiok's hands came down slowly, palms facing the dragoness' head, held a few inches away on each side with their thin, long-clawed grey fingers spread widely.

"Speak your imaginings, precious," the gorgon crooned. "Ashiok's works are spreading amidst your thoughts, yes?"

The dragoness' fingers curled around the gorgon's hand briefly for a squeeze, and there was a faint nod.

"I can see statues that look like me—a lot of them—all kinds of them," she said in a sing-song tone, voice soft. "All kinds of different poses. Everything has a tiny glow around it like your eyes."

"Alabaster and turquoise seem best for this," the gorgon mused. "I fancy obsidian tremendously, nevertheless it's inharmonious in this circumstance."

She took a breath, then hissed softly, very softly, eyes wide, focusing on the dragoness, who began to take on a translucence around the edges. The gorgon could feel her fingers going cold, scales beginning to fuse with one another, smoother and smoother. She turned her own hand, making sure the dragoness' pose held.

"A big cave full of statues like me. I can hear you moving around. Talking to statues. Adding statues. Changing us." Her voice slowed and took on a rasp as she continued. "Lots of dragons. Lots of statues. Beautiful ones. You keep adding more. You want something."

Ashiok listened, nodding slowly, lips pursed in an expression of interest. The dragoness grew paler still, even as smoke poured from Ashiok's hands and over her shoulders, down her body. Her wings drooped a little, membranes stiffening, the thinnest parts of her succumbing first to the gorgon's patient gaze. As the dragoness opened her mouth to speak again, the motion slowed, then stopped. Gently, with her hand on the dragoness' smooth, hard chin, the gorgon closed the dragoness' mouth. She tipped her head to the side as though listening to a whisper, then smiled.

" _Supremely_ pleased to," she purred.

Paler and paler were the dragoness' scales, gradually fusing into a smooth white mass with a certain iceberg-like translucence and faint sky-blue tint towards her center. There was a slow crackling sound as the stone spread: it was a cold alabaster white, taking over from the warmer ivory white as scales solidified into a uniform surface of stone. The change started at her fingertips and toe-talons, then moved up her arms and legs. By the time she'd stopped speaking, only the gorgon able to hear her final utterance, her front was all stiff and the tiny motions of pulse, breathing, and living muscle beneath scales, were ceasing. The frontier of the petrification wrapped around to her back, enveloping her, compressing her a little as it went.

The smoke that drifted down over her from Ashiok's hands, and that which Ashiok had prompted to emerge from her, clung to her body as it flowed down. Where it passed particularly thickly, it left faint veins of grey, marble-like, in the stone of her body. Ashiok made a little sigh, then a flourish, terminating the flow of smoke. The gorgon moved in, sniffing at the dragoness, tongue flitting out, examining her work. She caressed with all four hands, she growled possessively, and with Ashiok drifting back a little, coiled herself around the stone dragoness, squeezing. Leaning in, she kissed the top of the dragoness' head gently, then laid her own head against the stone, her snake-hair spreading, flexing lazily. A moment later, she nodded in satisfaction and relaxed her coils, stone scraping a little as she moved the dragoness towards Ashiok.

"Please, demonstrate, be unobstructed," she purred.

Ashiok's elongated black nail-claws clicked softly as the hand that bore them came to rest on the dragoness' head: Ashiok's other hand waved in a slow flourish. The dark veins in the stone spread further.

"The obstructions were minimal," Ashiok said. "I took great care to preserve their dreams: I'd been stimulating and cultivating those to this end. Do they usually continue to dream?"

The gorgon paused, her top-left hand on her chin as she looked down at the dragoness. Absent-mindedly, her down-left hand caressed the dragoness' cheek.

"The question's troublesome to answer exhaustively," she admitted, then gave Ashiok a searching look. "My dreams distantly at best resemble mortals'."

Ashiok nodded, made the slightest gesture towards a bow.

"As an authority on the matter, I can say that this one is dreaming, then, and that the dreams somewhat span their presence here with their presence in the dreaming realms: an advantage of finding someone for whom your attentions are a dream come true."

The gorgon raised an eyebrow again, pressing together the fingertips of her upper hands.

"Dreams' tastes always escaped my tongue's caress," she admitted, "This one's dreams previously seemed hesitant of submitting to artistic participation."

"I freely admit that I encouraged them: as we artists do, I worked with the materials most suitable to the project at hand."

Nodding, the gorgon inspected her prize again. The veins in the stone left by Ashiok's smoke were deepening in color from ashy to slate-grey to black, and beyond merely black to the black of the unlit portions of the gorgon's cave, the black of a hole in the world. After a moment of scrutiny, tiny blue and purple sparkles with white cores appeared deep in the space revealed by the veins.

"Fascinating."

"Yes. They're present in the dreaming realms. Your ever-captivating work has thrust them deeper into that realm than mortals go without their bodies accompanying them. They remain here, and are a lens that can be used to observe matters of dream and sky. You are perceiving through them the night skies of Theros: both raw material of dreams and the stage on which the grandest dreams of heroes, gods, and monsters are played."

"Splendid and luscious as an acquisition! Gorgeous and skillful as well. My tremendous thanks."

Ashiok stared into space for several minutes. The gorgon fussed over her acquisition, purring quietly, hands roaming as she examined the statue in minute detail, muttering to herself. She considered the dream-world's view through the black veins of the statue carefully, with many eyes and a few mutters to herself by way of notes. With a twitch, the planeswalker became fully present again: Ashiok took a moment for a flex of the neck and a roll of the shoulders, then spoke.

"I should also mention that by their journeying to the dream-realms, your little gemstone is also a conduit to Nyx, the dwelling-place the gods of Theros and their creations." Ashiok made a smile of blatant, catlike insincerity. "This place's deities sometimes pursue streaks of mischief, lust, or passionate violence: your artistic pursuits possibly face interference."

The gorgon applauded and laughed, shaking her head.

"Ashiok, you _scamp!_ You're simply the most troublesome there is. Please seek my environs as your next occasion strikes."

Her head whipped up, hands grasping the dragoness tightly and possessively, eyes alight with a dangerous, vividly green glow. It illuminated the wall of the cave quite clearly, catching a few wisps of smoke that disappeared as she watched: Ashiok Nightmare-Weaver was quite gone. The gorgon emitted another rueful laugh, caressing the starry dragon statue gently.

"Artistic vision is so bothersome sometimes. Still, I'm pleased to possess _you_ : discontents are eased by precious works' presence."

Lifting initially with her coils, then with all four hands, she carried the dragoness statue with tender caution, beginning the work of packing up her studio for departure.

**Author's Note:**

> That was an interesting challenge. The gorgon's mode of speech always takes some work to write, but I really like its effect. Meanwhile Ashiok has less of a distinct "raw" voice but I'm very pleased with having figured out how to use AO3's Work Skins to let Ashiok speak in a distinctive and unearthly manner. Or un-Therosian, however you prefer. I am also honored to be the first person on AO3, apparently, to portray Ashiok. Ashiok is a pretty awesome planeswalker and this is where I cop to being a huge Doug Beyer fangirl again, because [Beyer's ex-cathedra statements about Ashiok](http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/tagged/ashiok) have been great. Rosewater is less prone to going on at length, but has made some [excellent quips about Ashiok](http://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/61744044396/is-ashiok-a-guy-or-a-girl-id-feel-strange-trying-to) as well. So yeah: I think Ashiok is a really cool character in the Magic: the Gathering canon, and I like writing Ashiok even though writing Ashiok is a very different challenge than writing Chandra/Liliana/Jace. And of course I quite like writing my gorgon, her artistic practices, and her _distinctive forms of expression_.
> 
> It's a little sub-optimal that this story requires that you know a bit about Theros and how that particular world of the MTG universe works, but I couldn't quite figure out how to wedge it into exposition gracefully so I'm going to add a note here and hope that people who're bothered by the non sequitur find it. What you need to know is that Theros is the Greek-myth-flavored MTG world and as such, the gods are generally _jerks_. They don't particularly have a beef with the gorgon, but she would much rather avoid their attention than be on their radar, especially since she's not a native of Theros and not a planeswalker, so if things go pear-shaped she can't escape as easily as Ashiok (or the other MTG planeswalkers, the headliner characters) can. In terms of MTG's color scheme of describing the world, Ashiok is blue-black and the gorgon is (don't hold me to this) blue-green. As a result, Ashiok is entirely willing to try dangerous things without fully disclosing it to the gorgon - such as turning a person into a tiny portal to Nyx. They are not quite friends, but they're entirely willing to behave in a friendly manner in pursuit of craft, which is very important to both of them.


End file.
